


Reading Derek

by LadyDrace



Series: Junk Ficlets from Tumblr [27]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Body Language, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 02:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1801681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyDrace/pseuds/LadyDrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because the wife promised me the firstborn she’ll never have if I wrote something inspired by <a href="http://howlnatural.tumblr.com/post/78552940915/dude-idk-what-it-was-but-dereks-ears-were-just-super">this post</a>. So I did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reading Derek

**Author's Note:**

> Un-betaed.

Derek isn’t non-communicative like most people seem to think. Granted, 9 out of 10 words he actually speaks are sarcastic comebacks and therefore not very useful, but Stiles has to admit that he makes every 10th word fucking count. So, yes. Derek can talk. He just doesn’t seem to want to volunteer any more information than he absolutely needs to.

 

Therefore, Stiles has been forced to utilize his excellent detective genes, courtesy of his pops, and try to wring as much information as he can out of Derek without getting his face clawed off. Stiles’ tried and true method of bugging someone until they yell at him has proved to only invite more violence from Derek, and while Stiles is willing to take one or ten for the team, he can only hide so many bruises before coach starts asking questions Stiles really,  _really_  doesn’t want to answer.

So Stiles watches Derek. All the time. When he talks and when he doesn’t. And even though Stiles really hasn’t spent all that much time with Derek, too busy dealing with catastrophe after catastrophe, Stiles is proud to say that he now has a pretty good handle on him. Because Derek Hale looks like the picture definition of stoic when you first meet him. Face like granite, still as stone. But spend five minutes with him, and you’ll realize it isn’t. Hell, Stiles is pretty sure Derek’s eyebrows have an entire language of their own.

So when Derek says “I don’t know,” for the fifteenth time when Scott asks yet another question, Stiles can mentally translate. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know, and you don’t need to know, fuck why are we even talking about this when we should be out there killing things, and why are you talking to me when Stiles is so much smarter-” okay, Stiles might have been imagining that last one. But fact of the matter is that Derek’s whole body speaks so much more than his words.

When his shoulders tense while he’s saying something, it means what he’s saying is important and that he really thinks they should listen to him. When his eyes narrow and his hands flex it means he’s wary or distrustful of whoever he’s talking to. When he’s annoyed, his nostrils flare. When his nostrils flare and his ears go pink, that’s when Stiles pulls Scott out of the room, because if they keep pushing after that, Derek goes wolf and no one wants that.

Every tick of his jaw or tensing of his muscles or change in his stance is another clue for Stiles. But worst of all, worse than the random physical abuse from Derek when he’s pushed to the edge, worse even than the heartbreaking sadness on his face when he thinks about his family, is when there’s nothing to see. Because sometimes Derek goes blank. His face smooths out, not relaxed, but distant. Like his body is functioning on its own with no conscious presence guiding it. Like his very soul shuts down. Stiles has only seen it twice, and both times it made him want to vomit from distress.

Because that means Derek has lost someone, yet again.

Both times he’s come out of it again after a few hours, but both times Stiles has been terrified that this will be the time where Derek decides there’s no point in coming back to the realm of the living. That he’ll just shut down and stay in whatever alternate dimension his mind goes on holiday to when the sheer quantity of  _nope_  has reached far beyond critical level. Something that happens to Derek way,  _way_  too often in Stiles’ opinion.

So Stiles will cling to all the little signs that Derek is there. That there’s someone steering his beefy self around, and that he’s not just an empty shell. Stiles will catalog and cherish every little twitch and flex, every blush and crinkle, keep it all squirreled away in the part of his brain dedicated to remembering that everyone Stiles cares about are okay. He’s not entirely sure when Derek made it into that box, but he’s there now, and if Stiles has to resort to reading Derek’s goddamn ear-waggles like morse code to keep him in it, then that’s what Stiles is going to do.

End.


End file.
